Milk seems to be drying up, anything I can do about it?

[insertwittynicknameHERE]

DD2 has thrush and wont latch on, she is being treated with Nystan from the GP and the thrush is getting better.

I am expressing but I seem to have less and less milk. Just a few days ago I was able to express approx 5 ounces from each breast, now I am only getting approx 0.5 to 1 ounce from each breast.

I am worried that my milk is drying up. I am expressing every 3-4 hours throughout the day, should I express more frequently.

I am hoping that things will resolve themselves when DD goes back on to the breast once the thrush has cleared up and it no longer hurts her to latch on.

Also my nipples are bleeding quite badly. They have small spots around the base of the nipple near the aureola (sp?) which bleed when I express. I seem to have a lot of blood on my breast pad all the time from my nipples.

I have to go out, insert, but best way to inc milk is to express more...some women will need to do this more often than you are doing. Sounds as if you have damaged yr nipples with expressing (they sound like blood blisters )

Call one of the helplines, I think.
Sorry no time to discuss more

why are you not breastfeeding as normal?

I had thrush threated with nystatin, topical dactarin for nipples and systemic fluconazole and I continued to breastfeed as normal. Although it was obv very painful

Hopefully someone more experience will come along, but if you dont keep feeding, then the milk may dry up

Gosh that sounds very painful, poor you.

Do ring one of the helplines.

Thanks everyone.

Lillymolly, DD wont latch on as it is too painful for her. Well she will actually latch on but only for a few seconds then comes off screaming and crying . Otherwise I would be feeding her as much as she wanted. I don't care about any pain I am in, I just don't want to loose my supply.

oh sorry , poor dd

tiktok is right, the more you express, the more milk will be produced, but not as much as a baby would, so try and keep dd sucking as much as possible if she can stand it.

Agree do ring the NCT or la leche helplines, they will help I am sure, or contact local midwife / infant feeding co ordinator

Thanks, our local maternity home has a peer supporter MW and I called her yesterday but she is on holiday for 2 weeks.

I have an appointment to see my GP on Tuesday, but tbh I am not sure how much she can help me.

I will give NCT a call see what they can recommend.

also look at this leaflet

to help you advise the GP.

probably stating the obvious, but have you given her paracetamol/ibuprofen?

Thanks lillymolly, I will print that out to take with me to the gp's.

motherlovebone, I would but she is only 16 days old and calpol is from 2 months only, unless anyone knows of anything I could give her now.

this works wonders for bleeding nipples heals very quickly and is non toxic

fennel is supposed to work for increasing milkk supply,fennel tea and tablets i ll see if i can search some

try la leche league for advice and a bf counsellor

la leche legue helpline

fenugreek tablets for increasin milk supply here

fennel tablets here

good luck hope it gets better for you x

how are you both today ?

Thank you for all of the advice. We are both a lot better, DD's thrush has really started to clear up well. I have some cream to help rid me of my thrush so we are on the mend.

I stopped expressing as it was just so painful, my nipples were bleeding so much that any milk I did get was pink from the blood!!
My nipples are almost completely healed now and DD is latching on fine but not as often as I would like TBH.

She has approx 6-8 breastfeeds a day for about 15-20 minutes a time but has formula the rest of the time (she is a very, very hungry baby we cant seem to fill her)

I am going to increase the breastfeeds and decrease the formula feeds once the thrush has completely gone so hopefully we will get back on to more breastfeeding once more.